The invention concerns an opener for opening flaky fiber material, which opener is incorporated via a short feed pipe that can be admitted with a transporting air flow under suction pressure and charged with fiber flakes, as well as via a discharge pipe, into a pneumatic conveyor line for the processing of fiber material, said opener having a driven opening disk with spikes, to which is assigned a fixed counter opening disk, provided with radially outward extending rows of spikes in the direction of the opening disk spikes.
Various designs of such openers are known. Thus, the DE 33 33 750 A1, for example, discloses an opener for opening and cleaning of fiber material, which comprises two opposite arranged rollers, positioned parallel above grate rods, grids or the like and below a closed covering cap in a horizontal plane and provided with spikes or the like, wherein the intake and discharge openings are arranged such that the fiber material is fed in and discharged in a direction parallel to the rollers and by means of an air flow. Such openers operating with spiked rollers require a large amount of floor space, have a low degree of opening with a poor flow rate, and are subject to high wear and tear. In addition, there is the danger of lap formation on the rollers with subsequent blocking.
The GB-A-996 604 furthermore discloses a fiber opening and cleaning machine with a driven opening disk that is installed in a housing and a stationary counter opening disk, located on the opposite side, with a space in-between. A fan wheel sits on the drive shaft for the opening disk and is located opposite the central opening in the counter opening disk. The opening in the counter opening disk is connected to a material feed line via a cone-shaped section of pipe, which discharges from the top into the housing. The opening disk and the counter opening disk are surrounded peripherally by fixed grate rods, through which dust travels on the one hand in horizontal direction to a ring-shaped chamber located inside the housing, while opened fiber material travels on the other hand in vertical direction to a venting hood that is located on the top of the housing and is connected to a suction line.
The GB-A-478 760 furthermore discloses a Crighton opener with a housing erected on a floor level and having a reverse U-shaped design, which opener comprises on the inside, in the lower region of said housing, a shaft that is supported on the floor and has a a short feed pipe attached to its side. On its top, the shaft supports a cage that is enlarged away from it in a truncated-cone shape and consists of individual grate rods. Located above this cage is a driven opening device, designed as cross wheel and functioning as a beater, which is connected to a discharge/feed-in pipe and is designed to drive foreign matter downward, in the is direction of the floor. Exhaust nozzles, which allow the continuous suctioning out of lighter foreign matter, are assigned to the cage side, inside a chamber between cage and housing.
In addition, the EP 0 572 495 B1 discloses an opener of this type, comprising a housing with built-in opening disk, which is incorporated via a short feed pipe and a short discharge pipe into a pneumatic conveying line for the processing of fiber material. The short feed pipe that discharges into the bottom part of the housing turns into an open hollow cylinder extending into the cylindrical housing, which is connected to the short discharge pipe by forming a ring-shaped chamber. At a specific, parallel distance to the free front of the hollow cylinder, a driven opening disk is arranged, which covers this cylinder and which is provided with sharp spikes pointing in the direction of the hollow cylinder. A fixed, circular-segment shaped counter opening disk is inserted into the front of the hollow cylinder, which is provided with sharp spikes pointing in the direction of the opening disk. These counter opening disk spikes can be installed such that they are tilted in rotational direction of the opening disk. To be sure, this represents a considerable improvement in the degree of opening for the flaky fiber material, but the inflexible opener of the spikes on the rotating opening disk as well as on the fixed counter opening disk nevertheless involves the danger of fiber flakes getting caught in the spikes and a lap formation on the spikes, which in extreme cases will clog the rows of spikes and will impede or even prevent the opening of the succeeding flaky fiber material. In that case, the machine must be stopped and the rows of spikes must be freed of fiber material wound around them.